wfn.org | 1999 is time to recognize gifts of older persons

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Aug. 9, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom**(212) 870-3803**New York
10-21-71B{413}

NOTE:  First of a series. This story is accompanied by optional sidebars and
photographs.

A UMNS Special Report
By Linda Bloom*

When the United Nations General Assembly declared 1999 the International
Year of Older Persons, the idea was to recognize the gifts and challenges
presented by a worldwide population that is aging rapidly.

Is this recognition occurring in the United Methodist Church, a denomination
where the majority of the membership is more than 50 years old?

The Rev. Richard H. Gentzler Jr., an executive with the Office of Adult
Ministries, United Methodist Board of Discipleship, would like to think so.
But he hears complaints from people across the country that their pastors
have no real interest in reaching out to older adults.

The key is empowering older adults to become involved rather than making
them feel used up or worthless. "The reality is they have a lot to give to
the church in time, in energy, in experience, in faith and in finance," he
said. "We cannot allow their experience, their faith, to be lost or
underutilized."

Susanne Paul, a United Methodist and founder of Global Action on Aging,
agreed that churches are natural outlets for older people to express their
gifts and talents. But she pointed out in the January edition of Christian
Social Action that, in the past, churches have helped shape a restricting
definition of "old age" along with other segments of society.

"Insisting that older persons withdraw from society, and framing old age as
a time for prayer and preparation for death, the churches sanctified
age-based discrimination," she wrote in the magazine. "By defining pity and
charity as the appropriate responses to the elderly, they re-enforced the
movement which severed older persons from their accustomed life and labor
and forced them into a state of indigent dependence."

Attention caused by the U.N. International Year of Older Persons may help
change the idea of old age both within and outside the church. A plan for
action on aging covers 62 recommendations regarding the needs of older
persons. And the U.N. Principles for Older Persons focus on:

	*	Independence - the right to adequate food and shelter as
well as the ability to decide when to leave the work force.
	*	Participation - the ability to remain a fully active member
of society and develop new opportunities for community service.
	*	Care - the benefit of family and community protection, along
with access to health care, while maintaining human rights and freedoms.
	*	Self-fulfillment - opportunities for cultural, spiritual,
educational and recreational resources.
	*	Dignity - the right to live free of exploitation and
physical or mental abuse.

Global Action on Aging has been a major promoter of the international year
and its goals. In August 1998, Paul's organization sponsored the official
preparatory event for the year. During that meeting in Nashville, Tenn.,
dozens of United Methodists and women from other faith and secular groups
drafted a "Nashville Declaration on Older Women's Rights."

The declaration has since been adopted by a number of other organizations -
including the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, Older Women's
League and International Council of Jewish Women - and has been widely
distributed within the United Nations.

In conjunction with the United Methodist Teleconference Connection, Global
Action on Aging is sponsoring an Oct. 16 teleconference that focuses on the
theme of the International Year of Older Persons, "Towards a Society For All
Ages."

United Methodists were the first denomination to produce a resource to help
congregations celebrate the international year. Compiled and edited by
Gentzler, the book was mailed to every local United Methodist church, and
hundreds more were purchased by other denominations.

The United Methodist Committee on Older Adult Ministries helped produce the
book and has encouraged churches and annual conferences to highlight the
concerns of older people this year. At next May's 2000 General Conference in
Cleveland, the committee also will push to establish a churchwide plan to
develop older adult ministries.

Aging was a topic of the United Methodist Women's schools of mission this
year, which used "Humanity Comes of Age: The New Context for Ministry with
the Elderly," as a text. The book was by Paul and her husband, Jim. Many
schools ordered copies of Gentzler's resource as well.

Kolya Braun-Greiner, an executive with the Women's Division, Board of Global
Ministries, organized a letter-writing campaign on Social Security in the
UMW regional schools of mission earlier in the summer. Conference schools of
mission were encouraged to do the same and mail the letters to their
Congressional representatives and U.S. senators.

In other action related to the international year, the United Methodist
Board of Church and Society and the Board of Discipleship are preparing a
new resolution on older adults and how the church can support them. The
World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women has taken a survey of
older women's rights that is being tabulated.

# # #

*Bloom is news director of United Methodist News Service's New York office.

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